Apparatus for branding or otherwise marking case ends and the like



Nov. 26, 1929. A. A. SIMPSON 1,737,479

APPARATUS FOR BRANDING' OR OTHERWISE MARKING CASE ENDS AND THE LIKE 5 SheetsSheet Filed Jan. 1929 Nov. 26, 1929. SIMPSON 1,737,479

THE LIKE a Sheetsheet 2 APPARATUS FOR BRANDING OR OTHERWISE MARKING CASE ENDS AND SEE-ill- Filgd Jan. 3, 1929 Nov. 26,1929. AA. SIMPSON 1,737,479

APRARATUS FOR RANDING on o'rmwxsm MARKING 05812: Guns AND THE LIKE I FiledJan. 3, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 i cminc rsns m I 8E PRIN TE 0 Patented Nov. 26, 1929 PATENT OFFICE ARTHUR AMOS SIMPSON, OF ARMADALE,

NEAR MELBOURNE, NEW SOUTH WALES,

AUSTRALIA, ASSIGNOR TO UNIVERSAL LABELS LIMITED, 0]! ADELAIDE, S. A.,

AUSTRALIA APPARATUS FOR IBRANDING OR OTHERWISE MARKING CASE ENDS AND THE LIKE Application filed January 3, 1929, Serial No.

This invention has reference to improvements in machines for branding or otherwise marking case ends and the like and has been devised with the object of producing a machine which is cheap, simple and eflicient.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine which will brand in one or a number of colours in one operation according to the tastes and requirements of the person Whose goods are to be packed in the cases branded.

The present invention is characterized in that a plurality of branding positions are provided upon the periphery of a revolvably mounted drum and disposing in contact with said drum, (and of a number according to the number of brands upon the drum described) a corresponding number of inking rollers having yielding peripheries, each of which moves in a colour bath of any required colour, green, red, blue, black and so on.

The invention is further characterized in that the baths, rollers and designs are adjustable laterally in relation to each other and furthermore, each roller may be neutralized, i. e., while maintaining its position on a spindle it may be freed on said spindle so as not to rotate, thus no ink or the like is transferred to the branding drum.

A further essential feature embodied in the invention consists of automatic feeding means for carrying boards from a stack to the brand ing position, i. e. beneath the branding drum.

A further essential feature embodied in the invention consists in combining with the above apparatus means for applying multicolours or shading to the labels and these means consist in providing a second or rear drum having the additional colour or shading design thereon receiving colour or ink from an inking roller or rollers receiving colour from a well or wells disposed in its or their path, the roller and wells being preferably disposed as above described, thus a colour shape is imparted by the first drum and an additional colour or colours or shading is imparted by the second drum as the blank is carried by the chain or other conveyor or conveyors to the delivery end.

In order that the invention may be more 330,038, and in Australia October 28, 1927.

readily understood it will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a view in side elevation.

Figure 2 is a view in plan of the machine. Figure 3 is a view illustrating a modification.

Figure 4 is a detail view of the inking means, while Figure 5 is a schematic showing of a slightly modified form of my invention.

According to this invention a rotatable drum 5 is provided upon which a number of branding devices is arranged, each device being at right angles to the axis of rotation of the drum 5, and each branding device 6 may be close to the next brand or it may be spaced therefrom so as to obtain balance on the branded board, this, of course, only applying when more than one word or symbol is embodied in the one mark or brand.

The drum 5 which carries the designs is supported upon a central axis 13 which is revolvably supported in yielding bearings 14 comprising standards 15 which carry the hearings in slidable grooves 16.

The bearings 14 are provided at their upper ends with vertical extensions or projections 17, the upper ends of which are in permanent engagement with compression springs as 18 In order to adjust the resiliency of the drum 5 means are provided for increasing the compressive stress upon the springs as 18 and which comprises a hand or other wheel 19, each hand wheel being provided with a feed screw having at its lower end a freely mounted plate member 20 against which the upper end 21 of the spring 18 abuts, thus while the drum 5 is sufficiently immovable vertically to prevent only partial branding, yet the said drum 5 is permitted to yield sufliciently should any marked inequalities of boards be encountered.

This also applies when branding boards of varying thickness and by the provision of this yielding drum 5 marked discrepancy may exist between two boards as regards their thickness yet the branding efiect in both cases will be identical.

Immediately at the rear of the drum 5 de- .be fed by scribed is a spindle 7 carrying one or a number of inlring rollers 3 having a width corre sponding to the width of the brand 6 on the drum 5.

The inking rollers 8 described are formed with resilient or yielding peripheries 9 which may move in a bath 10 of colour matter, but which preferably i'rictionally contact, shown, with serially arranged, contacting surplus color-removin rolls 35, and rolls 33, the last mentioned of which runs in the bath 10 and transfers, by contact, the coloring matter to the roll 35, and thence to rolls 3. The bath may be fixed below the shalt or spindle 7 carrying the rollers 8.

The pe *ipheral length oi the rollers 8 described is of course dependent upon the length of the brand, so that as the brands on the drum 5 meet the inlr rollers 8, the said brand will be adequately covered with colour.

The ink rollers 8 may be driven by friction, i. e. each time the design drum 5 revolves and brings the design aroundto the ink roller 8 the tact- "hat the design matter is raised above the surface of the drum 5 causes frictional contact with the ink roller 3 and this of course will result in an intermittent motion of the ink roller shaft 7 and its rollers 8.

is preferred, however, to drive the rollers 8 at the same speed as the design drum 5 by rranging pinion 11 on the end of the roller spindle 7 which will mesh with a pinion 12 on the end oi the drum spindle 13.

Each roller 8 will revolve in or, preferably abath 10 of different colour, that is, there could be sixrollers 8 on the spindle 7 and a corresponding number of baths 10 below same, one bath could be red, another black and another green and so on.

The spindle 7 carrying the inking roller 8 could be changed from time to time so thata set of rollers could be provided having different numbers of rollers thereon, say two on one roller and three or tour on another, the colour baths remaining stationary for as no rollers would revolve in some of the baths consequently no colour would be importer to the branding drum.

As :QCCVlOHSlY described the inking rollers 8 are spaced along a driven spindle 7 the said rollers being in contactwith the design upon the drum 5 and it will be noticed particularly in Fig. 2 that the rollers vary in width and their corresponding well or baths 10 vary also.

The rollers 8 preferably comprise a disc having a flanged periphery upon which is cemented or vulcanized or otherwise ailixec a resilient tyre 22 of suitable material such as rubber, the said discs being maintained in spaced relationship by threading them upon the spindle 7 and with spacing washers or collars 23 between each disc.

The end discs 24, 25 are used to hold the remainder together by providing a screwed portion 26 upon the spindle 7 with nuts engaging with the discs 24 and 25.

The spindle 7 is carried on suitable bearings 27, 28 and also carries the toothed pinion 11 meshing with a pinion 12 ot the drum 5 and a' pinion 31 on the spindle 32 01' a surplus colour removing member hereinafter described.

The inking baths 10 which carry the colour matter for the design accommodate rollers 33 which. partly revolve in the colour matter, the said rollers 33 being supported upon a spindle 341- and spacer so as to correspond with the surplus above the said rollers 33, the colour matter is picked up from the baths 10 by the rollers 33 and passed on to the roller 35 which receives just sutlicient upon its periphery so that when the colour is finally imparted o the drum 5 it is or suliicient density and substantiation to effect the branding of the board in the desired manner.

The baths 10 are adjustably carried upon a transverse supporting bar 36, similarly the rollers 33 and respectively are maintainer to correspond to the position of the baths and vice versa, so that any spacing of the. brand may be obtained and maintained by causing the rollers described and the bars to register with each other.

The rollers 33 are frictionally driven and are revolvably supported in any suitable way .in order to permit their functioning in the manner herein set forth.

The baths 10 are filled with various col ours according to the scheme set out by the packer and the goods for whom the cases are being branded so that a selection of colours can be obtained by either having alternative arrangements of red or black, for instance, or it say 12 different lines of branded matter are to be deposited upon a board, each line could be of a, color difierent from that preceding it.

Any suitable means may be employed for operating the drum 5 and consequently the rollers for distributing the ink thereto, but it is preferred to employ a toothed pinion 37co-axial with the drum 5 and meshing with said pinion is a further pinion 33 on a shaft 39 which straddles the table 40, a

pinion ll being on the other end of the spindle 39 and meshing with a pinion 42 which operates the chain feed device to be hcreina 'ter described.

In order to ensure the boards passing in the same direction and in the same position in each and every operation guide member 43 are provided, which pass over a convenient length of the table and are adjustably held thereon by slots 44: receiving bolts 45 passthrough the said strips 43, in order to permit various widths of board being branded.

It is preferred also to automatically feed the boards to the printing position and in order to carry this into effect it is proposed colour revolving rollers 35 disposed to fix vertical members 46 to the guides 43 and arrange the flanges 47 of the said members 46 so that a space is provided between the table and the end of the said flanges at the bottom suflicient to permit of one board passing under at a time, the weight of the superimposed boards being suflicient to ensure regular feeding to the feeding drum.

The means for drawin the boards towards the printing position comprises chains 48 which move over spr ckets 49, 50 supported on bearings 51 secured beneath the table 40, a guard member as 52 covering the effective portion of the chain as shown which prevents the hands of the operator coming into contact therewith.

The chains 48 described move in longitudinal slots formed on the upper surface of the table 40 and are driven as already described by the toothed pinion 42 meshing with pinions meshing with the main drive, and upon the said chains and at selected intervals are gripping members 53 which project sufiiciently to catch upon the edge of the board and move it towards and under the branding drum and ultimately delivers the said board to any desired place for drying and stacking purposes.

If desired, the words comprising the de sign or the symbols, characters or lengendary matter may be made up of more than one colour, and in order to accomplish this, it is proposed to provide a roller as 54 which corresponds with the drum' 5 already described, the said drum 54 carrying half the word, that is to say, this drum would carry the upper half, for instance, and the word would receive its colour matter from a roller system as previously explained with the exception that the rollers would be effective upon half of the letter only and not for its entire surface so that when the board passed under the first roller it would have upon its surface a brand of any character but with the upper half of each line of words or designs formed only, the board would then continue in its motion and would meet a further roller as 55 having its own inking pads which would be effective on the lower half of the letters or to that half which was not coloured by the first rolle 43, thus the finished brand would be made up of. words, or lines of words divided into two colours or more, if so desired, and if desired by the packer, two distinct effects may be obtained by this arrangement as follows If the colour matter is of a particular viscosity the word or letters forming the word and. the division between the upper and lower portions of each letter will be clearly defined, whereas if the said colour matter is made sufficiently volatile the one colour will merge into the other and there will be no distinct line of demarcation between the said colours whilst the upper part of the letter may be red and the lower part of the letter blue, the central portion of the letter will be purple merging into a red and blue respectively as in the rainbow. As shown in Figure 5 the table 40 may have a plurality of printing drums 54 and 55, previously described, arranged thcreon. The roll 54 may have a portion of each character of a line of characters arranged thereon, preferably in relief, as shown at 56, while the roll 55 may have thereon complemental portions of the characters, as shown at 56. Cooperating with the drums 54 and 55, respectively, may be platens 57 and 57", the table 40 being cut away to permit the proper contact between the drums and the corresponding platens.

It will be seen that any arrangement of colour may be obtained and any range of shading may be obtained, also by mixing the colour matter so that it will be substantially viscous or substantially volatile there is plenty of latitude for the operator to obtain any desired effect upon the boards.

The boards are fed transversely to the branding drum 5, that is to say, it is usual to present the boards to the drum with the grain of the boards running in the same direction as their motion to the printing position, but in this process the boards are preferably fed crosswise to the branding drum or from side to side, thus permitting of any number of lines and of any colour being placed upon the board to form the brand.

It will be obvious, however, that the boards may be fed in any way to the printing drum, but it is preferred to feed them thereto lengthwise, so that the brand will be disposed from side to side of the board.

By this means it is easy to obtain any desired effect upon the boards, i. e. any colour arrangement and any spacing of the letters or lines of words, since the ink or colour rollers adapt themselves to any conditions enabling the user to have a wide range of ideas to select from.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a printing press, a frame; a printing drum in said frame, said drum having circumferentially-arranged, laterally aligned, raised printing characters thereon; a revolvable shaft extending substantially parallel with said drum; a plurality of inking roller. mounted on said shaft and juxtaposed to said drum and in frictional contact therewith; each roll having a width not greater than that of the raised character with which it contacts; means 011 said shaft spacing said rollers to properly align them with their respective characters; a plurality of ink or color baths arranged in said frame; and rolls revolvable in said baths and frictionally engaging said rolls and supplying ink or color thereto; and a revolvable shaft for said rolls, whereby the rotation of said drum rotates the rollers,

which in turn rotates the rolls; the shaft, the rollers, the rolls, and the baths each being mounted in the frame.

2. In a printing press, a table, a plurality of printing drums mounted in sequence on' the length of the table, saicl drums having thereon, in relief, complemental lateral portions of a line of characters, means for passing material along said table into juxtaposition with said drums in such manner that one drum will print one portion of each character, and the next drum will print another portion, and means whereby each drum may be supplied with a different color.

Signed at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,

\ this 27th clay of November A. D. 1928.

ARTHUR AMOS SIMPSON. 

